I'll take a Sperm, On the Rocks
Frozen Little Sperm
Have you ever heard of peoples' bodies being preserved by being frozen? It does exist. What I haven't heard of before, is freezing someone's sperm to preserve it. It does exist. There have been scattered stories throughout the news lately about people's sperm being preserved. As weird as it sounds, just look at how far science has come.
The record may be tied for the "longest-frozen, viable sperm" in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the age of 13, a man by the name of Chris Biblis was being treated for leukemia. This continued until he was 18 years old. When he was 16 years old, his mother told him he should freeze his sperm. At the age of 38, (free of leukemia) he now has a healthy newborn baby girl thanks to his sperm that he froze twenty one years ago.
In 1992, the first baby was born from intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which is when a single sperm is placed into an egg. Now, it is a procedure that is performed frequently and efficiently. It was also in the news recently that a judge gave approval to have sperm frozen. The catch: the approval was given to a mother who wanted her dead son's sperm saved. She told a local newspaper, '"I want him to live on. I want to keep a piece of him."'
As I said before, science has come a long way. Do you think that it is moral to save sperm of someone who had a disease, incase they had a potential of being infertal from treatments? Do you think it is moral to save sperm of someone who is dead, merely to save a part of him/her? You decide!
Posted by Alyson Paige (Group C)
Update:
It is very curious to think that this could potentially be going against the whole idea of evolution. This was brought up in one of the comments, and it is a very good point. People with disease should be able to have children, but are they passing a bad gene? The chemotherapy is the factor that decreases the fertility, otherwise they would be perfectly fine. So is this going against evolution, or making chemo patients feel more comfortable to be able to possibly have children at a later date?
I researched fees for having sperm saved in a bank and it can cost thousands of dollars depending on how long you want a bank to hold the sperm. It is also more expensive if your sperm is potentially infected with HIV or other disease. There are banks across the country that save sperm, but the closest one to Amherst that I saw was in New York City.
Have you ever heard of peoples' bodies being preserved by being frozen? It does exist. What I haven't heard of before, is freezing someone's sperm to preserve it. It does exist. There have been scattered stories throughout the news lately about people's sperm being preserved. As weird as it sounds, just look at how far science has come.
The record may be tied for the "longest-frozen, viable sperm" in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the age of 13, a man by the name of Chris Biblis was being treated for leukemia. This continued until he was 18 years old. When he was 16 years old, his mother told him he should freeze his sperm. At the age of 38, (free of leukemia) he now has a healthy newborn baby girl thanks to his sperm that he froze twenty one years ago.
In 1992, the first baby was born from intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which is when a single sperm is placed into an egg. Now, it is a procedure that is performed frequently and efficiently. It was also in the news recently that a judge gave approval to have sperm frozen. The catch: the approval was given to a mother who wanted her dead son's sperm saved. She told a local newspaper, '"I want him to live on. I want to keep a piece of him."'
As I said before, science has come a long way. Do you think that it is moral to save sperm of someone who had a disease, incase they had a potential of being infertal from treatments? Do you think it is moral to save sperm of someone who is dead, merely to save a part of him/her? You decide!
Posted by Alyson Paige (Group C)
Update:
It is very curious to think that this could potentially be going against the whole idea of evolution. This was brought up in one of the comments, and it is a very good point. People with disease should be able to have children, but are they passing a bad gene? The chemotherapy is the factor that decreases the fertility, otherwise they would be perfectly fine. So is this going against evolution, or making chemo patients feel more comfortable to be able to possibly have children at a later date?
I researched fees for having sperm saved in a bank and it can cost thousands of dollars depending on how long you want a bank to hold the sperm. It is also more expensive if your sperm is potentially infected with HIV or other disease. There are banks across the country that save sperm, but the closest one to Amherst that I saw was in New York City.
posted by PWH @ 10:25 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Alyson,
This is very controversial. Actually, the first time I ever heard of freezing sperm was in Fox’s sitcom Arrested Development (George Senior freezes his sperm and Kitty steals it!). I personally don’t see anything wrong with it. If in the end it will make someone happy and it’s not hurting anyone else in return, then what’s the problem? Although it seems a bit creepy to save someone’s sperm to “save a part” of that person, who are we to judge? You bring up a good point when you describe the boy with leukemia saving his sperm. Perhaps it would have been immoral of the mother if she had actually stopped him from saving his sperm because in the end, it would have decreased his quality of life by not having children of his own.
Sarah Bello
Wow. This is serious stuff. I agree with parts and not so much others. I think it's wonderful for someone with a disease that would cause them to be sterile later on in life to save their sperm. It gives that person a chance to see their own children grow up and be healthy. However, in the case of the mother freezing her dead son's sperm...I don't agree so much. It must be terrible to see your child pass, but I think this mother is trying to hold on to too much. There must be some sort of line drawn, but where do you draw it?
Crystal Cabral
i agree with the decision to save the sperm of the boy with teh disesse and it's very smart good thing his mother was looking out for him. But on the other hand im not sure what the purpose is of saving you dead son's sperm is? It's a weird and far stretch from being sentimental.
Samantha DeBiasio
Its makes no evolutionary sense to have the genes of a weaker member of the gene pool pass on. If the person cannot live long enough to pass on his or her genes, is it not natural selection at work?
It does, however, make ethical sense, in so much as the only option we have here is to be neutral - if the person wants his sperm frozen, who can tell him not to?
[Nathan Beck, Group A]
I'm glad you brought up two very different examples, because I think it shows that with the technology we have today, it really is up to you where to draw the line. I guess if you have the money (I'm assuming preserving sperm is expensive..?) you can do what you want with your frozen sperm, just like how you can be implanted with eight embryos if that's really what you want. But does that make it right?
Jane de Verges
I think that people need to learn to let go of loved ones passed away and it was just their time to die. so, sperm saved from a dead relative should not be done. however, when it is for a practical reason such as infertility after cancer diagnosis, it is controversial but should be allowed.
Emily Ayotte
Wow. I cannot believe that an individual's sperm was frozen for TWENTY ONE YEARS. I would have never thought doctors would allow the procedure to take place after so long. I wonder if the baby girl that was born from this phenomena was healthy?
And. I feel if people want to save their sperm, go ahead. As long as there are no complications with the child associated to this procedure. As for deceased people, I do not feel it is such a good idea. Especially for the child.
Shonneau Lippett
Alyson,
Great blog! I wonder if the process of freezing the sperm may have an affect on the effectiveness of the sperm. Does the process of freezing sperm decrease ability of the sperm to fertilize an egg? There must be a certain time interval after which the sperm is no longer deemed fertile.
Saad Choudhry
I think this is a bit crazy and messing with the natural biology of nature. Thats great that we can freeze sperm; however, when a father is very old, and uses his sperm, he will not be there for his child in the later years..
Rachael Carlevale
Such a hilarious title for an article! I think that it should be okay to freeze sperm and eggs, because that way a person's genetic make-up can be passed onto the next generation even if they never get the chance to have sexual intercourse. If they can freeze Walt Disney (or so I've heard), then why shouldn't we be able to freeze anything we choose?
-Calin Darabus
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